Sugarplum
by Beth - Geek Chick
Summary: "Hey, sugarplum, have you seen my other sock?" A "missing scene" from Season 2, Episode 3, "Bang and Blame." Enjoy. Oneshot.


**Setup: A "missing scene" of Covert Affairs, Season 2, Episode 3, "Bang And Blame." For those who haven't seen it, or it's been a while, Annie is sent back to The Farm to weed out a mole. The situation is dangerous, because if the person catches onto her, her own covert status could be compromised. Auggie comes to The Farm to hand off some intel for her use. **

**That's enough for now, more info at the end.**

* * *

Annie looked around the room, eyes searching and ears listening to all of the various "conversations" going on around her. She was chuckling inside at some of the recruits' attempts to sell their cover. Huh. She never even got this far in her Farm training, yet she was able to convince an FBI agent she was a high-class prostitute her first day in the field.

But secretly one-upping herself amongst these people was not what she was there for. Time was running out, and she had to find the mole. In a room half full of people trained to lie and the other half learning how to lie, she wasn't finding it easy. Her trainer, Roy Gaskin, was the only one so far that held any kind of potential.

She hoped that Auggie was able to find his office. She hated that he had to come on site to help her. It didn't bode well for her abilities as an operative to have to constantly be "helped" by her handler. He came into the camp as an audio/visual substitute lecturer and had handed her the concealed thumb drive and earwig that afternoon, but she hadn't seen him since.

While getting dressed in her "cocktail" outfit of tight purple wrap dress and deep purple stilettos, she'd tucked the earwig in and hoped it was concealed enough for no one to notice. But she hadn't heard anything from Auggie yet. Not one buzz in the earwig yet about his plan. She was about to find someone to lay her cover story on, just to get it out of the way, when she saw a familiar figure across the room.

"You look familiar," she said, sidling up to Auggie.

"Wish I could say the same," he quipped with a chuckle.

There was no way they could have a meaningful conversatio amidst the packed room, so she laid into the routine they were all there for.

"Laurie Ann Bertrand," she said, extending a hand. "And you are?"

"Dr. Stevens," Auggie answered, which made Annie nearly laugh, but she held it in.

"A doctor, huh?"

"Surgeon, Neurology, actually."

Then he began to tell her a story about his latest brain surgery, a rather fanciful tale that included detailed instructions. Clever, Annie thought, as she mentally memorized the route to Roy Gaskin's office. This man never seemed to surprise her.

Fifteen minutes later, her own task done of introducing herself as Laurie to two other strangers in the room, she excused herself to the ladies room. Thankfully, no one was in the corridor, and she silently sprinted down the hall to the staircase. Moving so fast so quietly in shoes that were meant to be seen and heard was a talent she'd acquired over the years. Others may have taken off the shoes and went barefoot, but Annie refused to run the risk of stepping on something that might hobble her.

* * *

Auggie waited down the hall, ears attuned to the slightest hint of someone approaching. Annie was, indeed, a pro, getting to the office within a minute – he'd alloted two for that. She'd talked him through the various stages of finding the laptop and the encryption she ran up against.

Easy as pie, he'd thought. And pretty much what he expected. The thumb drive he'd slipped Annie wasn't blank at all. Once inserted into any USB drive, the decryption algorithms kicked in, and within a few seconds, the data filled the gigabytes of available space. One of his more useful technology inventions, if he said so himself.

Her voice sounded a bit frantic as she worked the laptop and thumb drive, but he let her adrenaline take her through her tasks. Simply telling Annie Walker to calm down did nothing but make her more rushed and pushed. Her drive for excellence was one of the things that drew him to her, ever since he met her.

Sure, he could've tasked one of his lackeys to come here to hand over the tech to Annie, but he wanted to get out of the office. Besides, no one ever believed a blind guy could be playing them. They were too trusting once they saw the cane and innocent smile.

And spending time with Annie in the field, surrounded by strangers? Just another perk of the job. They could talk and flirt, and – Whoa, he thought. Mind going somewhere, Anderson? Maybe he, too, was letting the adrenaline of the job get to him. But she did smell nice tonight. Not her normal scent, but a similar one, and just as intoxicating. While he'd told her the most ridiculous story he could think of in that room, hoping she'd get the clues in the right order, he'd noted by a brush here and touch there that her dress was sleeveless and tight.

Damn, he thought. He knew she was probably dressed appropriately for the occasion, but he couldn't get the image out of his mind now. He wondered, how far would she be willing to take this game of make believe? All the other recruits there – the female ones – had been making passes at him all day. He remembered that even Annie had upped her flirtatiousness when they spoke after class.

He hadn't heard anything over his earwig for a minute now, and he mentally chided himself for letting his mind wander.

"Annie?"

"Got it."

He smiled to himself at another job well done by his favorite operative. "Okay, good work. I'll be there in a second."

Yeah, he knew they'd planned to meet outside, exchange the thumb drive, and he'd be on his way back to DC. But he knew something Annie didn't – a bit of intel he'd picked up walking out of the room a few minutes ago. Roy Gaskin had been pulled into a conversation with Ted Phillips, a man who droned on to Auggie for a good 20 minutes about his "good old days" before Annie found him.

That meant they had some time to kill. He walked down the hallway , loosening his tie as he went.

Annie tucked the thumb drive into her purse, wondering what Auggie meant by he'd see her in a second. Hadn't they planned to meet outside? Though everyone was two floors down, once intel was retrieved, you were supposed to get the hell out of Dodge, right? Did something go wrong?

She was tiptoeing toward the door when it swung open, making her gasp. "Jesus, Auggie. You scared me. I thought Roy –"

"Shh," Auggie said, raising one finger to his lips while continuing to loosen his tie with the other.

Annie staggered back into the office, her eyes widening as Auggie tossed his tie to the ground and slid his jacket off hs shoulders. Her mouth opened to ask what he was doing, but then his fingers went to the buttons on his shirt, and that part of her that ached to see what was beneath it seized her throat.

He continued to gain ground on her, and she continued to step back, until her calves hit the leather couch that ran along the back wall. Feeling like a trapped butterfly, she stood stock still until he came within a foot of her. He'd left a trail of clothing behind him, tie, jacket, shirt. His feet were already bare. Her eyes slid from his almost predatory gaze to his wide, muscled chest and abs that rippled with every step.

His hands went to his belt as he stopped, and that's when she found her voice again.

"Auggie, what are you doing?" she whispered. "Roy could come in here any second, what would he say if he caught us? I could be burned, Auggie, and –"

"Shh," he said again, this time his finger coming to rest on her lips. Before she could ask how he did that without fumbling or catching her ear, he spoke again. "Roy Gaskin is caught in the middle of a conversation with someone who loves to hear his own voice. We've got time."

Annie knew they shouldn't. The danger and risk involved could render them both jobless and probably homeless. Who knew what the CIA would do to outed covert operatives? It wasn't something she allowed herself to think about.

But then his hand slid along her jaw and didn't stop. Along the line of her neck, across the material of her dress, and as he took a step forward, his hand slid along her upper back. Those strong, overly sensitive fingers of his always did wonders for her libido, but in the past, it'd been a touch here, a touch there. Now he was deliberately touching her, caressing her skin.

A cross between a sob and a groan emitted from her throat, startling herself. Her hands, trapped at her sides in fear, began to raise to his chest as his fingers found the zipper between her shoulder blades. The soft sound of its rasp as it ventured down filled the small room, and Annie's head rose to look at his face as the material loosened on her body.

"Auggie," she was able to whisper before his mouth descended to hers.

* * *

Usually it was the adrenaline rush of an mission that left him out of breath, Auggie thought as he lay entangled in Annie's arms. He had a hard time believing what had just happened, what he allowed to happen, and more important, what he wanted to happen. He'd had sex with lots of women over the years – hey, could he help it if they constantly threw themselves at him – but what he'd just experienced eclipsed them all.

He could barely catch his breath, and his heart and mind seemed to be at war with each other, arguing what a good/bad idea this was and what this meant for his future with one Annie Walker. And, by the way her naked body moved beneath his with her own heavy breathing, she was beyond words, as well.

"Auggie, we've gotta get out of here," he heard her whisper between her breaths that tickled against his neck.

His brain won the fight, and he gingerly moved off of her, his hand immediately moving to his watch. He'd allotted 20 minutes, and 18 had passed. Damn. They did need to get out of there.

"Get dressed, hurry," he said, standing up and immediately bending over to where he hoped he remembered he had dropped his clothing. He heard her get up, as well, and his heart screamed at him to say something, anything, but there was no time.

Underwear, pants, belt, shirt, jacket, tie. All in a line from the couch to the door. His shoes and socks were in the outer office, and as he buckled his belt, he moved out there to retrieve them. To his horror, he heard the door open, and he was quick enough to duck behind a desk as he heard someone moving across the room to the very place where he'd left Annie.

Damn it, he breathed. Think, Anderson, think! A quick cover story formulated in his mind, and he gathered up his remaining items and walked to the door.

"What the hell is this?" he heard. Damn it, Auggie thought. Gaskin had indeed caught them.

"What are you doing in my office?"

"I know how this must look," Annie stuttered.

Auggie tucked himself in the doorframe, his voice decidedly out of breath. "Hey, sugarplum, have you seen my other sock?" he asked.

"What the hell do you think this is?" Gaskin shouted. "Is this a game to you?"

Auggie looked as startled as a blind instructor who got caught necking with a student could look. "It's the only office with a couch," he said, inserting a look of amused embarrassment on his face.

"CSTs get cut for less than this," he heard Gaskin shout out at Annie.

Damn it, Auggie thought. Time to man up. "It's my mistake, all right?" he said. "My first since returning from an unfortunate incident in Baghdad, and as you can see, I lost a lot more than my luggage. I apologize. I'd appreciate if we'd acknowledge that it was poor judgment and move on."

As he rambled, he felt Annie alongside him, and he had to stop himself from groaning as his body responded to her hand gliding up his bare forearm.

"Get out. Now," Gaskin shouted.

Good idea, Auggie thought, as he spun and immediately grabbed Annie's elbow and followed their lead out into the hall. Once they were in the stairwell, he stopped them and assembled the rest of his outfit. Did he just hear a sigh of disappointment as he buttoned his shirt up?

"I promise you, Annie, this – what just happened – isn't over. But Gaskin won't allow anymore chances. You need to finish this op, and then –"

"I know," Annie said, taking his tie from his fingers and looping it around his neck. "We'll talk when I'm back in DC, okay?"

"Just talk?" he asked with a smirk.

"No, not now that I know all the rumors about you are true. Believe me, Auggie," she whispered as her face drew nearer to his. "This isn't over by a long shot. A 15-minute quickie isn't anything compared to what we're capable of."

Auggie's cane dropped to the floor as her words sunk in. He felt her bend to pick it up, and he opened his mouth to reassure her, but he felt her finger on his lips.

"Shh, we'll talk later," she said. His hand was then lifted and placed on his elbow, and they walked quickly down the stairs and out of the building.

* * *

**A/N For all of you who've seen the ep, you know that the only thing that was in the episode was Annie's getting the intel off the laptop, Gaskin bursting in, and Auggie showing up shirtless in the doorway with that famous quote, "Hey, sugarplum, have you seen my other sock?" I took liberties with what could have/should have happened here. What surprises me is that, as far as I can tell, no one else did in all the time since that episode aired. What a shame.**

**The catalyst for doing this oneshot one is the "poster" that nbc universal store sells now of that famous "sugarplum" scene. Yeah, it's hanging on my wall now, and after a day of staring at it while I'm working, this story was born. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**Please review.**

**PS, meant to tell you, I've made a complete compilation of Stu scenes and posted it to my tumblr site. Just a little video editing project that I'm proud of. Link's on my profile page, 'cause they don't allow links in chapters. pout.**


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